5 ms·
> everyone else uses it soon enough. Unfortunately in this case, ASICBOOST is both patented, and adds a fair bit of complexity to mining hardware. Both these p
by petertodd 10y ago
> everyone else uses it soon enough.
Unfortunately in this case, ASICBOOST is both patented, and adds a fair bit of complexity to mining hardware. Both these problems have the undesirable effect of increasing the barriers to entry for new asic manufacturers - an undesirable thing from the point of view of Bitcoin users.
You're quite correct that shortcuts are irrelevant, but the reality of manufacturing makes the playing field a lot less level than we'd like.
- shea256 10y agoExactly, I'd go further and say that if a particular technique is patented and cannot be matched by a related technique, giving a permanent unfair advantage, it is up to the community to change the proof of work and work around the advantage imposed by a state monopoly.
- jcoffland 10y agoThen Bitcoin has to hard fork every time someone comes up with a new patentable idea. I don't see why people think mining must be fair. It only has to not become completely centralized.
- tlrobinson 10y agoBut if one miner has a significant advantage for a long enough time then mining will become unprofitable for everyone else, ultimately leading to nearly complete centralization.
- Taek 10y agoPeople forget that profits can be reinvested. If one miner has 10% extra profits, they will have 10% extra hashrate growth. This leads to effective monopoly.
- um_ya 10y agoHard fork isn't required to fix this issue.
- Taek 10y agoSomeone who can control the majority of the hashrate can enforce a transaction whitelist. Bitcoin's independence from the state requires the world superpowers are not able to control a majority of the hashrate.
- midmagico 10y ago> Bitcoin's independence from the state requires the world superpowers are not able to control a majority of the hashrate. Too late. :-)
- gcb0 10y ago> both patented and adds complexity just like any CPU or GPU solutions. just because they are more readily available you can ignore it for those cases?
- midmagico 10y agoNobody is saying we have to close off ASICBoost. Just the covert method of it which is incentive-incompatible with important protocol upgrades.
- Itsdijital 10y ago>ASICBOOST is both patented China be like, lol "patented"
- TD-Linux 10y agoNot only that, Bitmain (the miner implied to be using ASICBOOST covertly) copied the American patent and submitted it to the Chinese patent system. It's not yet granted, though.